Friday, March 31, 2017

Rony Chavez Aguilar’s case isn’t that unusual. According
to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Clearinghouse, from 2008 to 2012
ICE asked local jails to detain 834 U.S. citizens for possible deportation. The
Daily Beast notes that with Trump trying to speed up deportations, “it’s likely
more American citizens like Aguilar will be caught in the dragnet.”

American Citizen Trapped in ICE Jail

A man spent three weeks in ICE detention without seeing a
judge.

By Betsy Woodruff, Daily Beast

March 31, 2017

A U.S. citizen who ICE detained for weeks is suing the
agency, alleging it violated his Constitutional rights.

The lawsuit holds that Rony Chavez Aguilar was held in ICE
custody for nearly three weeks without being able to see a judge, and without
knowing why he was being detained.

Those officers initially arrested Aguilar on drug charges,
according to Roth. He pleaded guilty, and spent about two weeks in county jail
for the offense. After the two weeks were up, he would have been free to go.
But ICE thought he was undocumented, and wanted to deport him.

The officers kept him in the county jail so agents with
ICE’s Chicago field office could take him into custody. According to the complaint,
they picked him up on or around March 7 and moved him to the Boone County Jail
in Burlington, Kentucky, where they contract out space to detain people facing
deportation.

Thursday, March 30, 2017

The good news is that DACA recipient Daniel Medina Ramirez
has finally been released on bail, although the government is still pushing for
his deportation. And there’s plenty of bad news. On Monday ICE agents shot and
wounded a legal resident during one raid and dragged out a partially paralyzed
man in another. Both raids took place in Chicago, which is one of the
“sanctuary cities” ICE seems to be targeting. Also on Monday, anti-immigrant attorney
general Jeff Sessions threatened to cut off funds from these cities—although
activists feel that actually the localities cooperate too much with federal
immigration authorities.—TPOI editor

DREAMer smeared as a ‘gang member’ by ICE released after
judge finds he poses no threat

By Esther Yu Hsi, ThinkProgress

Daniel leaves detention. Photo: AP/Ted S. Warren

March 30, 2017

A 24-year-old undocumented immigrant protected under
President Obama’s deportation relief program has been released, six weeks after
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained him during an
enforcement operation near Seattle, Washington.

Daniel Ramirez, a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
(DACA) beneficiary, hugged his brother after his release on Wednesday outside
the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. Ramirez said in a public statement
that he was thrilled to go home and thanked his supporters.

“I’m so happy to be reunited with my family today and can’t
wait to see my son. This has been a long and hard 46 days, but I’m so thankful
for the support that I’ve gotten from everyone who helped me and for the
opportunity to live in such an amazing country,” Ramirez said. “I know that
this isn’t over, but I’m hopeful for the future, for me and for the hundreds of
thousands of other Dreamers who love this country like I do.”[…]

What a Brutally Violent ICE Raid Can Tell Us About Trump's
Creeping Police State

A Chicago shooting shows immigration agents and police
officers are part of the same violent apparatus.

By Sarah Lazare, AlterNet

March 29, 2017

On March 27, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents
unleashed terror on residents of a northwest Chicago home when an agent shot
and seriously wounded a man in a house where eight family members were present,
including a child as young as one.

“They didn't say anything. They just came in and pointed
pistols in our faces and dragged us out,” Carmen Torres, the daughter of the
wounded man, Felix Torres, told local news outlet DNA Info. "We didn't
even have time to dress or grab milk for the baby."

Torres’ lawyer, Thomas Hallock, said in an interview with
CBS Chicago, “He was shot immediately, or almost immediately, upon opening his
door to see what the commotion was outside of his residence.”

ICE claimed an unidentified man pointed a gun at agents
during the course of an arrest, but produced no evidence and admitted that
Torres, 53, was not the individual targeted by the invasion. "It's a lie
when they say he was holding a gun. He doesn't even own a gun," Carmen
Torres said. "They shot my dad. They shot him, and I don't know
why."[...]

Reports surfaced of a second raid in Chicago Monday.
Wilmer Catalan Ramirez, who is partially paralyzed, was dragged from his home
by ICE agents, according to a spokesman for Cook County Commissioner Jesus
"Chuy" Garcia.

By Josh McGhee, dnainfo.com

March 29, 2017

CHICAGO — The son of a man shot by Immigration and Customs
Enforcement Officers in Belmont Cragin Monday pleaded not guilty to gun charges
filed previous to the ICE raid.

Felix Torres Jr. entered a not guilty plea on nine counts of
aggravated unlawful use of a weapon stemming from a traffic stop Feb. 24 in
Belmont Cragin, according to court records. He posted $5,000 bond.[…]

Here's what Atty. Gen. Sessions got wrong about the law in
his attack on sanctuary cities

There are several problems with Trump’s words, and
Sessions’. To begin with, Trump misrepresents the rationale for sanctuary
policies in many jurisdictions.

Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times

March 28, 2017

U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions sounded passionate, wrathful
and confident when he appeared at the White House press room Monday to deliver
a blistering attack on sanctuary jurisdictions across the nation.

States and cities that thwart the federal government’s
policies against illegal immigrants, Sessions said, would face severe
consequences. He talked as though jurisdictions across the nation were actively
violating federal immigration laws, pumping undocumented immigrants back onto
the streets even after their convictions for serious crimes.

Sessions threatened to withhold or terminate federal grants
from cities that do so or declare them ineligible for future funding. He even
threatened to “claw back” funds that already have been advanced.[...]

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

The Trump administration’s proposed budget includes $999
million for 62 miles of the president’s promised border wall. But Republicans
legislators, facing opposition from Democrats, may leave the wall request out
of the budget Congress passes next month, creating another big loss for the
real estate magnate right after his team’s failure to push Trumpcare through
the House of Representatives.

There’s another embarrassment for Trump’s promised wall:
the 62 miles of fencing and wall in the budget request—48 miles of new
construction and 14 miles of work on existing barriers—would come with a price
tag of $16 million per mile. At that rate, a wall for the whole 2,000-mile
border, including upgrades to the existing 651 miles of fencing and other
barriers, would cost far more than the $12 billion Trump has claimed at various
times, and more even than the $21 billion a government report projected earlier
this year. And none of this counts the maintenance costs for the giant structure,
which could pass $70 billion over the next quarter century.

So where does the administration propose finding the
funds for the Great Wall of Trump? From cutbacks in areas like medical research
and bridge construction. No wonder the pledge to “build the wall”—a big
crowd-pleaser during Trump’s campaign last year—isn’t so popular anymore. A
CNN/ORC poll found that just 39 percent of 1,025 adults surveyed earlier this
month approved the wall; 61 percent were opposed.—TPOI editor

Congress may stiff Trump on wall funding

“The Trump administration can't have another disaster on
its hands. I think right now they have to show some level of competence and
that they can govern.”

By Burgess Everett and Rachael Bade, Politico

March 28, 2017

Congressional Republicans might deliver some more bad news
for President Donald Trump, fresh off their embarrassing failure to scrap Obamacare:
No new money is coming to build his wall.

Trump hoped to jump-start construction of a massive wall on
the U.S.-Mexico border with money in a must-pass government funding bill. But
Democratic leaders are vowing to block any legislation that includes a single
penny for the wall.

With the GOP consumed by its own divisions, the White House
and Hill Republicans will have to rely on Democratic votes to avoid a
government shutdown next month in what would be another disaster for Trump’s
fledgling presidency.[…]

Washington (CNN)The Trump administration wants the first $1
billion of border wall funding to cover 62 miles -- including replacing some
existing fencing along the southern border.

The $999 million requested by the White House in its budget
supplement for just defense and border security spending would cover just 48
miles of new wall, according to justification documents from the Department of
Homeland Security obtained by CNN.

The documents describe exactly where the administration
hopes to put its first installment of the border wall, as it described its
modest 2017 funding ask.

The money will fund 14 miles of new border wall in San
Diego, 28 miles of new levee wall barriers and six miles of new border wall in
the Rio Grande Valley region and 14 miles of replacement fencing in San Diego.
The fencing would likely include concrete elements, a source familiar with the
plans told CNN.[...]

Here’s what the Trump White House wants to cut to fund his
border wall, military spending spree

The suggested cuts are not official White House proposals,
but they suggest the thrust of administration thinking

By Matthew Rozsa, Salon

March 28,
2017

On the same day that Department of Homeland Security
justification documents were reported that indicate President Donald Trump
wants nearly $1 billion to pay for his proposed border wall, the White House
has sent a list of $18 billion worth of suggested spending cuts to Capitol
Hill.

The cuts are wide-ranging but include programs like medical
research, community development grants, and building new roads and bridges,
according to a report by The New York Times. Because the list of suggested cuts
are not being presented as official administration proposals but rather as
“options” for congressional Republicans, they tell us more about where Trump
would like to cut spending in order to pay for his border wall and Pentagon
spending increases — as well as the fact that the administration is flexible in
its approach to what it cuts.[…]

CNN/ORC poll: Most back boost in infrastructure spending,
oppose growing military budget

By Jennifer Agiesta, CNN Polling Director

March 8, 2017

Washington (CNN)—President Donald Trump last week floated
the first kernels of his budget proposal for the coming year, and a new CNN/ORC
poll finds the public sides with the President on tax cuts for the middle class
and increased spending on infrastructure.

They disapprove, however, of his plans to increase military
spending and fund the construction of a border wall with Mexico.

The poll results come about a week after Trump outlined some
of his budget proposals in an address to a joint session of Congress. A budget
request for 2018 is expected to reach Congress on March 16.[…]

Monday, March 27, 2017

In the latest case, ICE agents detained Francisco J.
Rodriguez Dominguez at his home in Portland, allegedly because of a misdemeanor
conviction last year for DUI. Meanwhile, Daniel Medina Ramirez remains in
detention after more than a month. –TPOI editor

Portland 'Dreamer' arrested by immigration agents, advocates
say

He worked at Latino Network, where he coordinated a food
pantry for low-income families. The organization on Sunday asked supporters to
call immigration authorities and demand that Rodriguez Dominguez be released:
"FAMILIA. One of our own needs your help - Call ICE to demand Francisco's
release at (503) 326-3302."

By Elliot Njus, The Oregonian/OregonLive

March 26, 2017

Francisco J. Rodriguez Dominguez

An undocumented Portland man granted a deportation reprieve
in 2014 was arrested by federal immigration agents early Sunday, the American
Civil Liberties Union of Oregon said.

Francisco J. Rodriguez Dominguez was arrested by
Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agents at his Southeast Portland home, the
group said.

The arrest would make him one of a handful of reported
immigrants recently arrested despite their participation in the 2012 Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which has not been revoked by President
Donald Trump's administration.[...]

I’ve been in an immigrant detention center in Tacoma, Wash.,
for more than a month. That’s a month away from my family, a month further away
from doing everything I can to support my 3-year-old son and a lifetime away
from the future my parents wished for me when I was brought here from Mexico at
age 7. I’ve spent nearly my whole life in the United States — as a child, a
teenager and now an adult with a child of my own. This country is my home.

I was detained and brought here on Feb. 10, just over a
month after moving from the Central Valley in California to the Seattle area to
find a better job to support my family. It has been difficult to keep a
positive outlook. It’s gray here, and I mostly keep to myself, except for the
prayer group I attend twice a day. To pass the time, I recently started
learning how to make origami animals to give to my son when I see him
again.[...]

Saturday, March 25, 2017

16-Year-Old's Death After Coerced Meth Ingestion Underscores
Violence of Immigration System

ICE's haste to portray Acevedo as a "dangerous"
drug trafficker skirts the issue of ICE's own culpability: Neither of the
officers was disciplined, and both remain on the force today.

By Natascha Uhlmann, Truthout

March 24, 2017

In November of 2013, US Border patrol agents pulled aside
16-year-old Cruz Marcelino Velázquez Acevedo for questioning around a suspected
illicit substance in his possession. He didn’t survive the exchange.

While in federal custody, Acevedo stated that the substance
in question was apple juice. The agents, unconvinced, coerced the teen into
drinking the liquid. Acevedo succumbed to violent convulsions and died two
hours later. A test kit, readily available on the premises, would have
confirmed the contents as liquid meth within three minutes.

US Customs and Border Protection officer allegedly took
sisters into ‘closet-like room’, told them to remove their clothes and sexually
assaulted them

Sam Levin, The Guardian

March 22, 2017

Two teenage sisters fleeing violence in Guatemala were
sexually assaulted by a US Customs and Border Protection officer in Texas after
crossing the Mexican border, according to claims filed by the American Civil
Liberties Union.

The sisters, aged 17 and 19 at the time of the incident in
July 2016, were in a field office in Presidio when an agent took them into a
“closet-like room” one at a time, told them to remove their clothes and
sexually assaulted them, the ACLU reported on Wednesday.

“We had fled Guatemala for fear, and then this happened to us,”
the older sister, now 20, said in a phone call with reporters. In tears, she
added: “The purpose and reason why we’re sharing our story today is to prevent
this from happening to any women and to ask the agents to have sympathy.”

Friday, March 24, 2017

Evidence is emerging that the February ICE raids and more
recent detentions reveal what reporter Sam Knight calls “a pattern of
deportation as retaliation.” Immigrant rights activists need to consider the
most effective ways to expose and resist this maneuver by the Trump
administration. Note the link below to a petition calling for the release of
two Vermont activists detained last week.—TPOI editor

Source: ICE is targeting 'sanctuary cities' with raids

Administration is unhappy with local agencies that limit
cooperation on detentions

One case study is Travis County, Texas

By Maria Santana, CNN

March 24, 2017

(CNN)Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been targeting
so-called "sanctuary cities" with increased enforcement operations in
an effort to pressure those jurisdictions to cooperate with federal immigration
agents, a senior US immigration official with direct knowledge of ongoing ICE
actions told CNN.

A sanctuary city is a broad term applied to states, cities
and/or counties that have policies in place designed to limit cooperation or
involvement in the enforcement of federal immigration operations. More than 100
US jurisdictions -- among them New York, Los Angeles and Chicago -- identify as
such.

High-ranking ICE officials have discussed in internal
meetings carrying out more raids on those locations, said the source.[…]

Recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions raise
questions about the Trump Administration using deportation proceedings to
punish political opponents -- both institutions and individuals.

Three undocumented activists in Vermont were arrested over
the past week by ICE agents -- two of them, while leaving the office of an
organization that advocates for immigrants' rights. In Texas, meanwhile, a
federal magistrate judge on Monday confirmed that immigration agents were
conducting raids in response to policy changes carried out by the county seat
of Austin.

The Texas-based federal magistrate, Judge Andrew Austin,
recalled how ICE officials had told him to "expect a big operation"
and that it was "a result of the [Travis County] sheriff's new
policy." This assertion was confirmed by the testimony of an ICE Agent
named Laron Bryant.

Fifty-one people were netted in the raids. Twenty-eight of
them had no criminal record whatsoever.

Federal agents privately alerted two magistrate judges in
late January that they would be targeting the Austin area for a major operation
and that the sting was retribution for a new policy by Travis County Sheriff
Sally Hernandez that dramatically limited her cooperation with them, according
to one of the judges.

The revelation — made Monday in open court by U.S.
Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin — conflicts with what Immigration and Customs
Enforcement officials told local leaders after the sweep, when ICE
characterized the operation as routine and said the Austin area was not being
targeted. It also provides evidence after weeks of speculation that Hernandez’s
policy triggered ICE’s ire.

Enrique “Kike” Balcazar, is a seasoned human rights leader
in Vermont. Kike has lived in the state since 2011, when he became one of the
many migrant dairy workers who make Vermont’s iconic dairy industry
possible....Zully Palacios is an active member of Migrant Justice. Zully has
participated in Migrant Justice Assemblies, learning about the reality that
dairy farmworkers face in Vermont....

On Friday, March 17, Enrique and Zully were leaving the
Migrant Justice office in Burlington, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) agents targeted and arrested them. They are now in detention awaiting a
court date. Neither has a criminal record. Their targeting appears to be
political retaliation for their effective work in defending the human rights of
workers and immigrants in this country.

Please sign to send the following letter to ICE Boston Field
Office Director Todd Thurlow demanding the immediate release of Enrique and
Zully, and calling for their deportation proceedings to be terminated!

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Although this is just one poll, it’s in line with other
recent surveys showing a majority of the population supporting
legalization—despite the anti-immigrant rhetoric from government and much of
the media. However, a majority also continue to back the deportation of
“criminal aliens”—pointing to an area where the immigrant rights movement needs
to work harder.—TPOI editor

By Tal Kopan and Jennifer Agiesta, CNN

March 17, 2017

Washington (CNN)Americans disagree with President Donald
Trump's immigration priorities, according to a new CNN/ORC poll, with nearly
two-thirds of Americans saying they'd like to see a path to legal status for
undocumented immigrants rather than deportations.

Trump has made tough border security and strict enforcement
of US immigration laws a focal point of his campaign and presidency -- using
some of his first executive orders to pave the way for far more deportations
and detentions as well as ordering the construction of a Southern border wall.

But a CNN/ORC poll released Friday finds that the public is
actually moving in the opposite direction since Trump has won election.[...]

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Trump opposes the use of guest workers “as cheap
labor”—except for his own use of guest workers as cheap labor. This article is
a good exposé of Trump’s hypocrisy, but the writer buys into the arguments of
guest worker proponent Giovanni Peri
that tech H-1B workers are “good for the economy.” No doubt these workers are
much better paid than Trump’s hotel workers, but they’re still basically exploited in the same way as less skilled guest workers. And they too can be victims of violence-prone U.S. racists—TPOI editor

By Sheelah Kolhatkar, New Yorker

March 20, 2017 Issue

When it comes to America’s technology industry, Donald Trump
takes a dim view of foreign workers. “I will end forever the use of the H-1B as
a cheap labor program”—it provides visas for technical and skilled
employees—“and institute an absolute requirement to hire American workers for
every visa and immigration program,” he said in a statement a year ago. “No
exceptions.”

When it comes to the hospitality industry, though, Trump is
much more, well, hospitable. His Administration recently made it harder to get
H1-B visas, but he has expressed no objection to the visa category that hotels
and resorts use—the H-2B—to attract low-cost, low-skilled seasonal labor. In
fact, at Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach club, the visas are still in active use.
Why the exception to the no-exception rule?[…]

Many of the tactics of civil disobedience which were used in
the civil rights movements and in the movement to end apartheid in South Africa
have not been used in the struggle of the undocumented. The reason is that the
undocumented have not wanted to put themselves in the hands of those who would
deport them. Sanctuary was an exception – and sanctuary was an action taken
jointly by those with and those without papers.

This Monday, Congressman Luis Gutierrez and my pastor,
pastora Emma Lozano, assembled eight leaders to meet with the Director of ICE
in Chicago. Unable to get answers to their questions about the future of DACA
and the outcome of several deportation cases, the Congressman and the
delegation determined to stay, staging a sit in in the midst of Homeland
Security offices.[….]

Chicago activists, local religious leaders, and Rep. Luis
Gutierrez have been sitting in at the Chicago ICE offices today to protest the
mass deportation policy. They reportedly expect to be arrested after 5 pm.
We’re posting a statement below from Familia Latina Unida/Sin Fronteras along
with links to news articles.—TPOI editor

The campaign of civil disobedience begins today.

Statement of Familia Latina Unida/Sin Fronteras, March
13, 2017

Rev Emma Lozano, Co-chair of Familia Latina Unida and pastor
of the first sanctuary church in the nations today joins with Congressman Luis
Gutierrez and a group of committed religious leaders, elected officials and
community leaders to begin a new phase in the struggle against mass
deportations and separation of families. We cannot simply sit by, march and
hold press conferences while this administration tears apart our families and
our communities.

As in the days of the civil rights movement we find
ourselves up against a white nationalist power structure which seeks to drive
Latinos from the country or into submission. This is an administration which
has no moral compass to guide them. The fate of families, of U.S. citizen
children deprived of a mother or father, is not regretted, it is celebrated by
this administration.

Years of negotiation with the Republican Congress have
brought us often to the brink of a solution – but each time they pulled back.
This is not a matter of law it is a matter of humanity – and the lack of it. We
believe that we speak for the majority of people in this country who oppose
these deportations and separation of families. Only the peculiar states rights
structure of elections has put us in the hands of those without compassion or a
sense of justice. When the actions of government no longer reflect the will of
the people then people of conscience must act.

We have no alternative now but to begin mass campaigns of
civil disobedience across this country. Those of good conscience will join the
U.S. citizen family members and neighbors of the undocumented. We will explore
a full range of tactics to bring the deportations to a halt.

We are not criminals. We are not terrorists. We are workers
and we are mothers and fathers, sons and daughters. If we have to fill up the
jails of this country to remind this nation of its basic humanity – then that
is what we will do.

The campaign of civil disobedience begins today.

Rep. Gutierrez Handcuffed After Refusing to Leave Meeting
with ICE

By Shelby Bremer, NBC Chicago

Photo: Rep. Gutierrez's office

March 13, 2017

Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez was briefly handcuffed after
refusing to leave a meeting with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officials in Chicago, saying he planned to risk arrest by staying at the
agency’s office in The Loop until demands are met.

The Democratic congressman led a sit-in following a meeting
that began around 10 a.m. Monday with a delegation of activists that included
about 22 advocates, attorneys, community leaders and other local elected
officials, according to Gutierrez's spokesman Douglas Rivlin.[...]

U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez and a delegation of activists and
lawyers have staged a sit-in at the regional offices of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement after their demands were not met during an hourlong meeting Monday
with agency officials.

Gutierrez met with ICE's acting regional director Monday
morning to discuss immigrants living illegally in the Chicago area and around
the nation. The meeting was Gutierrez's first with ICE officials under the
Trump administration, and he hoped to get details about the agency's
enforcement policy as well as to advocate against deportation orders for
several detained immigrants.[...]

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Media attention has shifted away from the government’s
deportation campaign since the well-publicized raids in mid-February. However,
ICE agents continue to detain people, and the resistance movement appears to be
consolidating on the local level.—TPOI editor

Photo:Lauryn Gutierrez / Rewire

Organized resistance is forming to Trump's immigration
crackdown

Kate Morrissey, San Diego Union-Tribune

March 1, 2017

Organized resistance to President Donald Trump’s immigration
crackdown is coming to San Diego, as advocacy groups are beginning to organize
a rapid response network that could include hotlines, “solidarity teams"
and even safe houses.

Meant to protect unauthorized immigrants, the network would
be similar to what activists in other cities, including Los Angeles, San
Francisco and New York, are working to implement.

Unauthorized immigrants have dealt with increased fear and
anxiety since Trump signed his first executive orders on the subject, revising
the policy of former President Barack Obama to focus on those who had committed
crimes other than illegal entry. San Diegans forming a support network hope to
ease fears.[…]

NEW YORK - In historically conservative Staten Island, where
President Donald Trump won 57 percent of the vote, residents are readying their
homes to keep immigrants protected from being deported.

People like Ruth, a local educator who didn't want her full
name used so Immigration and Customs Enforcement could not identify her, are
becoming part of a network to offer refuge to families at risk of deportation
and do so in areas where Trump enjoyed strong political support.

“It's immoral to take children away from their parents,”
Ruth said. “People came here illegally because there was no decent pathway to
come here any other way.”[…]

San Francisco restaurants are joining a national movement to
establish sanctuary workplaces for undocumented employees and ensuring business
owners know their rights if federal immigration officials raid their
establishments.

In less than three months in the White House, President
Donald Trump has increased fears of mass sweeps by federal immigration
officials and penned an executive order to slash federal funding for cities
like San Francisco that provide sanctuary laws to not cooperate with U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.[…]

Saturday, March 11, 2017

The release of Daniela Vargas is a victory for the immigrant
rights movement, but Daniel Ramirez Medina, a Dreamer and father from Seattle, remains in detention. United We
Dream has already delivered over 50,000 petitions to Secretary Kelly to demand
Daniel’s release. The organization is calling for supporters to circulate
the petition and gather still more signatures.—TPOI editor

By Yara Simón, Remezcla

March 10, 2017

Last week, the story of Daniela Vargas – a 22-year-old woman
possibly facing deportation without a trial – rallied the activist community.
Today, immigration advocates are celebrating her release from Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Vargas, who arrived in the United States at
age 7, saw her dad and brother arrested by ICE officials a few weeks ago. She
hid in her closet, but ICE broke into her house and handcuffed her. They
eventually let her go. But because she was awaiting the renewal of her Deferred
Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status – which grants immigrants brought
to the United States at a young age the right to work and attend school – Vargas
felt shaken.

Daniel Ramirez

She went into hiding, but re-emerged last week to publicly
speak about ICE targeting her family at a press conference. As a friend drove
her away from the event, immigration officials stopped the car and detained her
– a move many saw as retaliatory.[...]

U.S. immigration authorities maintained a stay of removal for
New Sanctuary Coalition organizer Ravi Ragbir today as local politicians and
hundreds of supporters gathered outside the Federal Building in New York City.
But the activist needs to check in again next month in order to get travel
papers.

It seems ICE wasn’t happy with the publicity. Reporters and
photographers tried to follow Ragbir to the building to get a picture of the
popular organizer as he entered the ICE offices, but federal security officers
refused to let Ragbir or any other immigrant in until everyone with a camera
had backed away.—TPOI editor

New York City pols rallied outside Immigration and Customs
Enforcement’s New York City office ahead of a prominent Trinidadian-born
immigrant activist’s annual check-in—a meeting in which he feared, but
ultimately escaped, getting deported to his native land.

Dozens of advocates and elected officials joined Ravi
Ragbir, an organizer for the New Sanctuary Coalition of NYC—a an interfaith
organization that helps undocumented individuals fight detention and
deportation—near the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Lower Manhattan before
his yearly conference with authorities.[…]

UPDATE: Ravi Ragbir was released after his ICE check-in
after arriving at the meeting surrounded by hundreds of supporters. Watch live
coverage on our Facebook page

One of New York’s best-known immigrant rights advocates
joins us on what might be his last day as a free man in the United States. Ravi
Ragbir is executive director of the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City.
This morning, right after our broadcast, Ravi heads for a check-in with
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He plans to go to the meeting, even though
he may not be released.

Ravi legally immigrated to the United States from Trinidad
and Tobago more than 25 years ago, but a 2001 wire fraud conviction made his
green card subject to review. Even though he is married to a U.S. citizen and
has a U.S-born daughter, the government refuses to normalize his status. Just
last month, Ravi was recognized with the Immigrant Excellence Award by the New
York State Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators, given to those
who show "deep commitment to the enhancement of their community."[...]

Updates for March 9 Solidarity Rally Against Deportation

New York City families deserve dignity and respect. The President’s recent actions on immigration are tearing our communities apart. Each day, dozens of New Yorkers facing deportation must check-in with ICE Officers at 26 Federal Plaza. When they enter the building, they don’t know if they will be able to see their families again. Now more than ever it is important to show solidarity in the face of policies that threaten our communities.

Join us for a Jericho Walk to stand with individuals and families facing deportation. This interfaith act of solidarity will bring together advocates and supporters to show immigrants that they are not alone.

Please note the following about March 9th:

#1 Meet at Foley Square at 9 AMon Thursday (unless you are a volunteer, in which case we ask that you please arrive at 8am).

#2. The press conference will begin at 9 AM sharp so please be on time if you can.

#3. The press conference will lead directly into the Jericho Walk - an interfaith act of silent solidarity. People of all faiths/no faith are welcome, but we ask that you all respect the tradition of the Jericho Walk, which involves silence and other instructions we will share with you on the day of.

#4 Feel free to make and bring signs but we ask that your signs do not mention any specific individuals who may be facing detention/deportation. Keep signs general.

This goes for social media as well—please keep hashtags, tweets, Facebook posts, etc. general. Do not name specific people.

#5. Do not bash ICE, and please keep the references to Sanctuary to a minimum. This event is designed in solidarity with those most vulnerable, and we do not want to invite backlash against them.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

The following three reports make it hard to believe the
Trump administration is sincerely interested in protecting U.S. citizens.

Trump
claims ICE will just be deporting “the bad ones,” on the questionable
assumption that deporting felons actually makes us safer. In reality, ICE
agents are now free to meet their quotas by detaining just about any
undocumented immigrant they run into, without having to spend time looking
for actual felons.

Homeland Security head Kelly
is considering plans to split up Central American families crossing the
border. He claims—without evidence—that this would deter asylum seekers
who are fleeing their countries to save their children’s lives.

The
administration claims that the deportations, the Muslim ban and the
useless border wall will guarantee our security. But Trump expects to pay
for this costly expansion by cutting funds for the Coast Guard, the TSA,
and FEMA—agencies that with all their faults actually do at least something
to protect us.

So what are Trump, Bannon, and company really up to? Their deportation
policy looks more and more like an effort to gratify the extremists in
Trump’s base and to terrify the rest of us—who happen to be the majority of the
population. Certainly separating immigrant children from their parents will
accomplish nothing except pleasing the most sadistic racists in the
“alt-right.’ And what could be the purpose of cutting back security procedures
at airports while simultaneously inflaming anti-U.S. sentiment in the Muslim
world? Is the White House hoping to provoke a major terrorist attack?
After all, national emergencies are a proven opportunity for unstable regimes
to expand
their powers.—TPOI editor

ICE isn’t just detaining “bad hombres.” They’re scooping up
anyone in their path.

Immigrants are being uprooted from communities every day.
Here are their stories.

By Dara Lind, Vox

March 3, 2017

President Donald Trump has promised the only immigrants
being deported now that he’s in office are “bad hombres”: convicted criminals,
threats to American safety and the national interest.

News reports from across the country are making clear that’s
not true.[...]

Kelly confirms he's considering program to separate migrant
children and parents

Migrant kids at the border. Jennifer Whitney/NY
Times

By Madeline Conway, Politico

March 6, 2017

Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly
confirmed Monday that the Trump administration is considering separating
migrant parents from their children who cross the U.S.-Mexico border together
illegally.

Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer late Monday afternoon, Kelly
confirmed the gist of a recent Reuters report, saying that he is “considering
exactly that” as a way to deter people from Central America from traveling up
through Mexico with the goal of entering the U.S.[...]

Trump plan pays for immigration crackdown with cuts to
coastal, air security

The proposed budget cuts for the Coast Guard, TSA and FEMA
would be 'devastating' and undermine the fight against terrorism, smuggling and
illegal immigration, critics say.

By Jeremy Herb and Bryan Bender, Politico

March 7, 2017

The Trump administration wants to gut the Coast Guard and
make deep cuts in airport and rail security to help pay for its crackdown on
illegal immigration, according to internal budget documents reviewed by
POLITICO — a move that lawmakers and security experts say defies logic if the
White House is serious about defending against terrorism and keeping out
undocumented foreigners.

The Office of Management and Budget is seeking a 14 percent
cut to the Coast Guard's $9.1 billion budget, the draft documents show, even as
it proposes major increases to other Department of Homeland Security agencies
to hire more border agents and immigration officers and construct a physical
barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The budget numbers mark the most detailed breakdown yet
about how President Donald Trump envisions restructuring DHS to meet his pledge
to halt illegal immigration and deport some of the millions already here.[...]

Monday, March 6, 2017

President Donald Trump is slated to give his first
presidential address to Congress today. Democratic lawmakers have begun giving
their tickets away to immigrants as a protest against Trump’s push to increase
deportations and to block residents from some Muslim-majority countries from
entering the United States. Well, this is not the first time people of Mexican
descent have been demonized, accused of stealing jobs, and forced to leave the
country. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, more than a million people
residing in the United States were deported to Mexico—about 60 percent of them
were U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. We speak to the preeminent scholar on
this often overlooked chapter of American history: Francisco Balderrama,
professor of American history and Chicano studies at California State
University, Los Angeles. He is co-author of Decade of Betrayal:
Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s. […]

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Hundreds of thousands of people have now seen the video of Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez being detained by ICE agents as his 13-year-old daughter cries. Trump claims he’s just deporting “bad hombres,” but this is the reality—children traumatized by the threat of being separated from their parents. Interestingly, the rightwing trolls have been gloating on social media over what the Huffington Post describes as a “harrowing video.” The anti-immigrants may think they’re helping their cause; what they’re actually doing is exposing themselves as sadistic racists.—TPOI editor

ICE agents detain a father of four as his family watches

Harrowing Video Captures Teen Sobbing as ICE Arrests Her Dad
on the Way to School

The father of four U.S. citizens was detained over a nearly decade-old DUI

By Carolina Moreno, Huffington Post

March 3, 2017

Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez was dropping off his daughters at
school in Los Angeles on Tuesday when he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement. His 13-year-old daughter, Fatima, sobbed as she recorded
her father being handcuffed in front of her and her mother.

Avelica-Gonzalez, 48, who has been living in the United
States for over 20 years, had just finished dropping off his 12-year-old
daughter in the Highland Park neighborhood when he was detained. His
19-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, who was at work during the incident, told the
LAist that a car had been following her father since the moment he left the
house. […]

Children struggle to understand why the president wants to take away their
parents

By Roque Planas and Jessica Carro, Huffington Post

February 27, 2017

AUSTIN, Texas ― After an immigration sweep this month led to
dozens of arrests here, a group of elementary school students looked to their
teacher for an explanation. The teacher, who is forbidden from taking political
stances in the classroom, asked them to write or draw what they were feeling.

The children all drew and wrote about President Donald Trump
or his first major deportation operation.[…]

Friday, March 3, 2017

This is why I think, in many ways, the immigration
conversation is a racial justice conversation.… I think that it would be a lie
to have an analysis of the immigration system that doesn't speak very directly
about the influence of race in this country.

Aly Wane at SOA protest. Photo: Stephen Pa

By Sarah Jaffe, Truthout

March 2, 2017

Today we bring you a conversation with Aly Wane, an
undocumented organizer based in Syracuse, New York. Originally born in Senegal,
Wane works with a range of groups, including the Syracuse Peace Council, Black
Alliance for Just Immigration, the Undocumented and Black Network and Black
Lives Matter Syracuse.

Sarah Jaffe: Everybody is posting this story on Facebook
of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) taking an immigrant with a brain
tumor out of the hospital, and most people are posting this with "That is
not normal," "I can't believe this is our new normal." Your
response was, "I see ICE is getting back to its old tactics." Can you
talk a little bit about what "normal" has been for immigrants?

Aly Wane: I think those of us who have been
undocumented organizers for years are struggling with two energies right now.
On the one hand, we are so excited to see so many new folks come into
organizing spaces, realize what ICE and Border Patrol, with the cooperation of
police, have been doing for so many years and really want to fight that. However,
so much of this stuff was happening under both Obama and President Bush Jr.,
and we were not getting the same responses.[…]

By David L. Wilson, MR OnlineMarch 2, 2017
The national sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the second week of February drew a great deal of media attention. Some of the coverage was devoted to analyzing whether the arrests of about 680 immigrants marked the start of a massive deportation campaign by the Trump administration. Some focused on the impact the raids had on the immigrants themselves and on their families, which often include U.S. citizens and green card holders. But there wasn’t much discussion about the impact of the raids on other working people—on citizens without immigrant friends or relatives.

March 2 marked the anniversary of Honduran activist Berta
Cáceres’ assassination. The suspects appear to be linked to the country's corrupt and
violent military, which is trained and funded by the U.S. government.
Meanwhile, the U.S. media and political class raise alarms about Hondurans
fleeing to the United States to escape the violence. “Why don’t these people
stay and fix their own country?” the politicians and pundits ask. A better
question would be: “Why are we enabling the forces behind the violence?”—TPOI editor

The Honduran environmental activist’s killing a year ago
bears the hallmarks of a ‘well-planned operation designed by military
intelligence’ says legal source

By Nina Lakhani, The Guardian

February 28, 2017

Leaked court documents raise concerns that the murder of the
Honduran environmentalist Berta Cáceres was an extrajudicial killing planned by
military intelligence specialists linked to the country’s US–trained special
forces, a Guardian investigation can reveal.

Cáceres was shot dead a year ago while supposedly under
state protection after receiving death threats over her opposition to a
hydroelectric dam.

The murder of Cáceres, winner of the prestigious Goldman
environmental prize in 2015, prompted international outcry and calls for the US
to revoke military aid to Honduras, a key ally in its war on drugs.[…]

But our taxpayer dollars continue to flow to Honduras to
support the government of Juan Orlando Hernández, thus enabling the climate of
terror that is fed by his party’s corruption.

By Silvio Carrillo, New York Times

March 2, 2017

LA ESPERANZA, Honduras — Precisely a year ago, I awoke to a
garbled text message from my mother. She was too distraught to write clearly,
but I understood her immediately, and my heart dropped. Murderers had finally
gotten to my aunt Berta Cáceres, who, as a child, had been young enough to be
my playmate Bertita, and later, as a woman, was courageous enough to stand up
to evil in Honduras.

As we mark this sad anniversary in the town where Berta
died, there is no solace for my family. Neither Honduras nor the United States
seems to have learned anything from this loss.[...]

Mississippi, on Wednesday shortly after she spoke
to the media about the detention of her family. Law enforcement had initially
declined to arrest Daniela Vargas, who was previously granted deportation
reprieve under the Obama administration’s deferred action program.

On Feb. 15, Vargas was half-asleep at home when Immigration
and Custom Enforcement agents came for her family. Her father, a house painter,
kissed her goodbye on his way to work and was apprehended in the driveway,
Vargas told The Huffington Post last week. She says she never saw her brother,
a construction worker who was also detained.

Vargas’ family came to the U.S. from Argentina over 15 years
ago. She’d previously had protection under the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals program. The program now has an uncertain future under President
Donald Trump.[…]

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Trump wants to expand use of private prisons, but a
ruling by a federal judge in Texas could present a big problem. “The judge’s
ruling could encourage similar lawsuits against other immigrant detention
centers,” the Daily Beast notes. “That, in turn, that could have
significant implications for President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement
plans.” –TPOI editor

Detainees Sue Private Prison for ‘Forced Labor'

As many as 60,000 current and former detainees may join a
class-action suit against one of the nation’s largest private prison companies
over unpaid labor.

By Betsy Woodruff, Daily Beast

February 27, 2017

The nation’s second largest private prison company is facing
some serious legal challenges—and other companies may soon be in the same
situation.

On Monday, a federal judge ruled that current and former
detainees held at an immigrant detention center in Colorado can join a
class-action lawsuit against GEO Group, a private prison company. The
plaintiffs allege that the GEO Group forced detainees to work for extremely low
wages or for no wages at all, and in some cases threatened detainees with
solitary confinement as punishment if they refused to work. The center holds
undocumented immigrants facing deportation.[…]

Up to 60,000 people could join a class-action against
prison companies they say paid them little or nothing for their work, and
threatened solitary confinement if they objected.

By Rhonda Fannin, Texas Standard

February 28, 2017

In an unprecedented case, a federal judge ruled Monday that
a private prison company can be sued under federal laws prohibiting what
amounts to slave labor.

The ruling allows current and former detainees at a
privately-run immigrant detention center to join a class-action suit alleging
that the contractor running the prison forced detainees to work for low or no
wages, threatening solitary confinement for those who refused.

GEO Group, one of the nation’s largest private prison
companies, runs facilities in Colorado and in Texas. Betsy Woodruff with the
Daily Beast reports as many as 60,000 current and former detainees could act as
plaintiffs in the case.[...]

About The Politics of Immigration

The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers is a book that goes beyond soundbites to tackle concerns about immigration in straightforward language and an accessible question-and-answer format. For immigrants and supporters, the book is a useful tool to confront stereotypes and disinformation. For those who are undecided about immigration, it lays out the facts and clear reasoning they need to develop an informed opinion. Ideal for classroom use, the updated and expanded 2017 edition provides a succinct overview of U.S. immigration history, policy, and practice, with detailed notes guiding readers toward further exploration.
Guskin and Wilson have written extensively on immigration and facilitated dozens of dialogues on the topic with students, community activists, congregations, and other public audiences. To arrange a dialogue or for more information, contact them at thepoliticsofimmigration@gmail.com.
To stay in the loop on author events and related resources, follow the book on Twitter (@Immigration_QA) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ImmigrationQA/).